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Dodgers 22 recap

by Tony Medley

Nobody can say I didn’t give a warning about the Dodgers being knocked out of the playoffs despite their record-setting 111 victories in 2022. There’s an old adage that “Managers don’t win ballgames, players do.” But that adage is not true in the converse because managers DO lose ballgames and Saturday night was one prime example.

I have never hidden my disdain for the Dodgers’ Roberts’ constant hamartia when he deals with pitching. It used to be infuriating when a manager would pull a pitcher because the shortstop made an error. But Roberts pulls pitchers after they have struck out the last batter. There is neither rhyme nor reason to his decisions.

Last night he did it again. He had a guy on the mound, Anderson, who was in total control but Roberts pulled him after five innings of 2 hit, 6 strikeouts shutout pitching. Interviewed on TV at the time, Roberts said he was “comfortable” with his idiotic decision. The next guy struggled through one inning, allowing two hits but no runs. Then Roberts put in a guy named Kahnle to pitch the 7^th with a 3-0 lead. He promptly walked the first batter on five pitches. IMHO when a relief pitcher walks the first batter, he should be pulled immediately, but he couldn’t be, due to the new rules that require a relief pitcher to face a minimum of 3 batters (really it’s the Roberts rule because twice he has used three different pitchers to pitch to three batters in a 3 up 3 down sixth inning). So this turkey then allowed two line drive hits and the Padres had one run in with runners on second and third. Roberts then put in Almonte who allowed two hits, but looked in control, striking out the probable MVP Mario Machado for the second out. Then, after getting one strike on Cronenworth (there were now two outs and the score was tied and Almonte looked in control), Roberts popped out of the dugout and pulled Almonte, again for no discernable reason and put in Vesia, who promptly allowed a line drive single, driving in the winning runs and the Bums were dead.

If Roberts were a Japanese General in WWII he would fall on his sword, but don’t look for him to take responsibility because he only did what he has always done, shown his total obliviousness about pitching.

While Roberts is the clear goat of this experience, Trae Turner has to share some of the blame. He was less than average in the field (being charitable) and his performance at the plate showed that he is still a sucker for the outside breaking ball in the dirt, and he generally failed in the clutch. But we’ve probably seen the last of him as he will probably go elsewhere as a free agent. That’s not a problem because I think that Lux will be a star of the future at shortstop.

But, let’s face it, the quality of baseball has shrunk considerably during my lifetime. Last column I enumerated the weakness of the Dodgers’ starting lineup. But to be specific, let’s compare this team with the Dodgers’ alltime two best teams:

1953                 1963                2022

c. Campanella  Roseboro       Smith

1b. Hodges        Skowron        Freeman

2b. Gilliam         Tracewski       Lux/Muncy

3b. Robinson      Gilliam           Turner

ss. Reese              Wills               Turner

lf.  varies                Davis             varies but all weak

cf. Snider                Davis            Bellinger

rf. Furillo                   Howard       Betts

Now here is how I would play them, 1^st team, second and third:

1^st Team                 2^nd Team              3^rd Team

c. Campanella 53 Roseboro 63         Smith 22

1b. Freeman 22     Hodges 53            Skowron 63

2b. Gilliam 53         Lux 22                   Tracewski 63

3b. Robinson 53     Gilliam 63                   Turner 22

ss. Wills 63             Reese 53                Turner 22

lf. T Davis 63           varied 53                 varies 22

cf. Snider 53            W. Davis 63            Bellinger 22

rf. Furillo 53              Betts 22                 Howard 63

As a note, in '53 Jackie Robinson played 77 games in left field and 44 at third base (Billy Cox played more games there), so I took the liberty of playing him there for this team. So the ’53 team has 5 of the eight spots, the ’63 team has two and the ’22 team has one. On the second team, the ’53 team has three, the ’63 team has three and the ’22 team has two. On the third team, the ’53 team has zero, the ’63 team has tnree and the ’22 team has five.

Why is Betts only on the second team? Furillo won the batting title in ’53 @ .344 with only 32 strikeouts, and had the best arm in baseball vs. Betts’ .269 with 104 strikeouts.

One might question why the ’53 team, that lost to the Yankees in the World Series in six games, is listed ahead of the ’55 team that won a seven-game series against the Yankees. The answer is twofold: first, the lineup in ’53 was better and, second, ’55 was tainted because the Yankees’ best player, Mickey Mantle, was injured and only had 10 at bats in the Series.

This analysis is just of starting lineups and does not take pitching into consideration. But I would rate the pitching staffs as follows:

1. 1963
2. 1953 (even though it lacked Don Newcombe who was in the army)
3. 2022 (but it might have been much better if the staff could have pitched complete games)

As a final nail in the coffin of baseball’s quality today, only three batters in the NL batted over .300 (and don’t tell me that’s because pitchers only throw 100 pitches, so batters face fresh pitchers in late innings; would a batter rather face Sandy Koufax throwing his 110^th pitch or Joe Turkey fresh out of the bullpen?). I don’t know who led in “launch angle” or the incomprehensible WAR. But who cares? Bring back the good ol’ days where pitchers were men, five-inning pussycats were in Ponca City, and managers knew something about pitchers and pitching !